Customer Services Higher Officer - ( Ref : 6839 )

Job summary

This position can be based at Bristol , Cambridge , Eastleigh , Worcester or York

Job description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature– Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places– Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing– Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature– Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

The Role

Our Customer Service function provides a vital connection between Natural England and the people, organisations and communities we serve.

We manage a diverse range of customer contact, including general and operational enquiries, complaints, correspondence from Members of Parliament and Parliamentary Questions. We also support Natural England to learn from customer feedback, improve its services and deliver a consistent, high-quality customer experience.

We are looking for Higher Officers who are committed to excellent customer service and enjoy working in a varied, fast-paced environment. This is an exciting opportunity to build your knowledge and skills while contributing to work that supports Natural England’s objectives.

As part of the team, you will:

• help embed consistent customer service and quality standards across Natural England
• work collaboratively with colleagues, customers, stakeholders and other government organisations
• use customer information, feedback and performance data to support sound and evidence-based decisions
• help improve customer service processes, performance and organisational capability
• provide advice and support to colleagues handling complex or sensitive customer contact
• monitor telephone services and undertake quality assurance checks

We are interested in applicants who can bring relevant customer service, operational delivery, communication or case-management experience and apply it effectively in a new environment.

Job description

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

As a Customer Services Higher Officer, you will help deliver a professional, high-quality customer service for Natural England. You will manage customer enquiries, complaints and correspondence, support colleagues in resolving complex issues, and contribute to service improvements that enhance the customer experience. Working collaboratively across Natural England and the wider Defra group, you will use sound judgement, strong communication skills and customer insight to ensure fair, timely and effective outcomes.

Key Tasks

• Manage customer enquiries and casework

Handle a varied caseload of enquiries, complaints and correspondence, ensuring responses are accurate, timely and customer-focused.

• Investigate and resolve complex customer issues

Gather and assess information from multiple sources, work with subject matter experts, and coordinate appropriate responses to complex or sensitive cases.

• Support customer service quality and performance

Undertake quality assurance activities, identify opportunities for improvement, and use customer feedback and performance information to help improve service delivery.

• Provide operational support and guidance

Support and coach colleagues, assist with managing telephone services, and help ensure customer demand is effectively balanced against available resources.

• Drive continuous improvement and innovation

Contribute to projects and initiatives that improve customer service processes, systems and ways of working, including the effective use of digital and AI-enabled tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential Criteria

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate:

• Experience of delivering a high-quality customer or stakeholder service, including handling enquiries and providing clear, accurate and customer-focused responses.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate professionally and empathetically, adapt to different audiences, and build effective working relationships.
• Strong organisational and decision-making skills, including managing competing priorities, meeting deadlines, exercising sound judgement and knowing when to seek advice.
• The ability to gather, assess and accurately record information, with strong attention to detail and a commitment to producing high-quality work.
• Confidence using digital systems and Microsoft 365 applications, with the ability to work independently and collaboratively in a busy operational environment while demonstrating integrity and professionalism.

Desirable Criteria

It would be helpful, but is not essential, if you have:

• Experience of complaint handling, correspondence management or casework.
• Experience of quality assurance, coaching, supervising or coordinating the work of others.
• Experience of using customer feedback, performance information or service data to improve delivery and customer outcomes.
• Experience of using generative AI tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, to improve productivity, analyse information, draft communications and support decision-making, while applying appropriate governance and data protection requirements.
• An understanding of the work of Natural England, Defra or another public-sector organisation.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

Please note: Licensed visa sponsoring organisations are employers authorised by the government to recruit and sponsor overseas workers, enabling them to obtain the appropriate visa to work legally in the country. Natural England is NOT a licensed sponsorship employer.

As part of the Natural England’s application process, candidates are asked to confirm their right to work and remain in the UK. If a candidate says that they meet these requirements, ID is checked, a provisional offer of permanent employment is made and pre-employment eligibility checks commence. Only after these checks are candidates given firm offers of employment.

Natural England is unable to employ individuals who cannot provide the required evidence of their right to work.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only.

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Personal Effectiveness
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Work Delivery

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

As with all roles in NE, these roles require office attendance of a minimum of 20% of the working time – one day per week for those who work full time, subject to any reasonable adjustments and/or existing contractual homeworking.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical skills and knowledge

Description

• Demonstrable experience in delivering high quality customer service, with the ability to engage professionally and empathetically with a wide range of customers and stakeholders. Able to build positive working relationships, manage enquiries effectively and provide clear, accurate advice that supports Natural England’s objectives.
  • Experience of using data, customer information and feedback to resolve enquiries and inform decisions. Ability to accurately interpret information, maintain reliable records, and apply judgement to ensure customers receive a consistent, fair and timely service.
  • Proven experience of working in a customer service or operational delivery role, managing a varied workload and prioritising competing demands. Able to meet service standards and deadlines while working within established policies, procedures and governance arrangements.

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Personal effectiveness

Description

• Act with integrity, addressing challenging issues and managing conflict through being open and objective
  • Apply new technology to improve the way we deliver our work
  • Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and Natural England and inspire others to act

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Putting people at the heart of our environment

Description

• Listen to and understand our diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and Natural England
  • Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver Natural England’s vision, mission and aims
  • Build relationships and effective networks both externally and internally to bring in fresh perspectives, approaches and evidence to raise the profile of both your individual specialist work and that of Natural England

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Work delivery

Description

• Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures
  • Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,780, Natural England contributes £9,786 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Please refer to Job Description

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Tina Bige
• Email : tina.bige@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07789 625059

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6839-6839-Customer-Services-Higher-Officer/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v3.1 Opens in new window (docx, 550kB)